In far too many cases at Los Angeles City Hall, the phone is ringing, but no one is home.

In fact, a new audit says taxpayers are paying nearly $3 million a year for nearly 12,000 municipal telephone lines that are no longer in use.

"With the city facing a massive budget deficit, we must look at every way we can save money," City Controller Wendy Greuel said at a news conference where she released the report. "While the policies are strong, oversight is severely lacking."

In addition to the idle phone lines, Greuel found a lack of oversight over long-distance and international calls made by city employees.

Randi Levin, general manager of the Information Technology Agency, which oversees the telephone system, said new procedures have been put in place to control long-distance calls. In addition, all international calls must now be placed through a city operator.

The audit found there were 48 unauthorized calls to Canada, 33 to the Philippines and 20 to Mexico.

Greuel said the city has more than 40,000 telephone lines, but does not keep good records on how many of those are actually needed or even in use.

"To the department's credit, they have been working to eliminate idle lines," Greuel said.

City policy allows a phone line to remain idle for two months before it's eliminated to ensure it is not needed for a new employee or for emergency service.

"It doesn't make sense to shut off a line and then have it restored," Levin said.

Also under review is the use of a telephone access system that requires employees to use a special code to call out of the metropolitan area. However, the audit found that a number of offices - primarily the mayor and eight City Council offices - are exempt and that some employees have multiple access codes.

Levin said in one case, an employee had 47 telephone access codes that were being used to make personal calls. She said the situation has been corrected.

One area of new technology the city is looking at, Levin said, is Voice Over Internet Protocol, which allows unlimited long distance and international calls. Systems are being installed at newer locations, she said.

Telephone billing has been a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, dating back to the 1990s, when then Controller Rick Tuttle found the city was not paying its telephone bills on time and facing late penalties of up to $800,000 a year.

City officials said those problems have been corrected - Greuel even released a recent audit saying the city was paying some of its bills too promptly and limiting the use of its funds for investments.

Earlier this year, county officials estimated they could save $1 million a year by shutting off unused telephone lines.